Gov. John Baldacci is calling it a "landmark achievement" and a "wonderful legacy." Two conservation groups today announced their purchase of a pair of ecologically sensitive parcels of land in northern and western Maine. Both will be permanently conserved as part of a broader development and conservation plan. And the protection of the larger of the two tracts is considered a "missing link" in a special corridor between Moosehead Lake and Baxter State Park.
For the Appalachian Mountain Club, the purchase of the 29,500 acre Roach Ponds tract for $11.5 million from the Plum Creek Timber Company marks one of the largest conservation efforts the group has undertaken in more than a hundred years. The parcel is contained in an area known as the 100-Mile Wilderness, a remote area of forests, lakes and ponds that is dissected by the Appalachian Trail to the east of Moosehead Lake.
It will now be forever protected from development and kept open for back country recreation, including snowmobiling, hunting and fishing, as well as for sustainable forestry. And for Eric Stirling and his wife Mildred, the land deal is even more special. "We're dressed for Christmas today because this is just amazing! It's a gift from the heavens," Mildred Stirling says.
Carrying their young daughter in red and green, the Stirlings are fourth generation owners of the West Branch Pond Camps which lie within the Roach Ponds tract. They say they are grateful for the protection of this land that now forms a 63-mile-long corridor that can be accessed by their sporting camp guests and others who want a remote and special outdoor experience.
"My business is primarily non-motorized back country recreation -- moose watching, wildlife watching, that sort of thing. The Appalachian Mountain Club, being the purchaser of this land for conservation, is probably the best possible outcome for us," Eric Stirling says.
The Stirlings had been wary of the Plum Creek Timber Company's plans to develop two large-scale resorts and hundreds of house lots around Moosehead Lake. They saw it as a potential threat to their business and their region. But they say the conservation part of the deal - this is the first step in a much larger plan to protect several hundred thousand acres - puts their minds and their hearts at ease.
With this latest announcement, more than 650,000 contiguous acres is protected from development between Moosehead Lake to the northernmost reaches of Baxter State Park. The easements will be held by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.
"When Governor Baldacci first came into office, Maine was known as the state with the lowest percentage of conserved land in the nation; historically the total amount of conserved land in Maine had been around six percent," Conservation Commissioner Pat McGowan said at a news conference announcing the deal.
McGowan said that in the six years since Baldacci took office, those numbers have turned around. Instead of being the most heavily forested state in the nation with the least amount of conserved land, McGowan said Maine has become a national leader. "Today Maine people can be proud that almost 18 percent - 17.8 percent exactly -- of Maine's landscape is now conserved forever."
At the State House news conference, The Nature Conservancy also announced its purchase of 15,000 acres of the Moose River Reserve to the west of Moosehead Lake. The deal secures the last unprotected portions of Number 5 Bog, one of the largest, most diverse and least disturbed peatlands in the Eastern United States, as well as one of the state's most famous and remote paddling routes for canoers and kayakers.
The Moose River portion is being funded through a grant from the Land for Maine Future's program and private donors, to whom the Nature Conservancy must now turn to complete the purchase.
